Available in static JavaScript and dynamic (with a Perl back-end) flavors, the WebReference xref script is a traffic-building tool that enables you to automatically insert links into your Web pages whenever a key term is encountered on the page. By Dan Ragle.

Beginning with version .960, Simple Comments supports visitor logins using OpenID identifiers. In this article, I discuss some of the specific architectural and developmental considerations that went into the process of OpenID-enabling the Simple Comments system. By Dan Ragle.

The number one change in this release is support for OpenID. Other enhancements include: HTML Header/Footer Templates, Article Locking, Support for Unique Display Names, Visitor CAPTCHA Bypass, User E-mails in Comments and more. By Dan Ragle.

Pragmas in Perl are specific instructions that we can embed in Perl code, depending on our needs and preferences, that allow our scripts to be compiled and behave differently than they would otherwise. In this article, we look at how pragmas work. By Dan Ragle.

This the first release of webps, a Web-based front-end to the familiar Linux/UNIX ps utility. With webps, administrators can pull up ps lists using only a Web browser from any Internet connected location. By Dan Ragle.

This version of Simple Comments adds several new features, including optional CAPTCHA authentication on comment submissions, RSS format comment feeds and the ability for administrators to reply to a comment from directly within the comment approval screen. By Dan Ragle.

From time to time, even the most experienced programmers get stuck, hence the need for effective help files. In this Perl primer, we look at the "Plain Old Documentation" (POD) included with the Perl distribution and embedded in practically all publically available Perl modules. By Dan Ragle.

The Simple Comments script is a Perl-based system that allows you to add a talkback facility to the static Web pages of your Apache-based site. In this release, Simple Comments now supports the ability to reply to a previously posted comment and more. By Dan Ragle.

This is a release bulletin for the Simple Comments script. It includes a few new features, including the implementation of site section support, direct support for administrator authentication, immediate publishing, date time formatting and more. It also squashes several bugs. By Dan Ragle.

A common feature appearing on more and more Web sites is support for comment posting by users, which tends to appear at the bottom of a Web page or article. Our own Perl-based comment system is the focus of this article and you'll learn how to use this on static Web pages. By Dan Ragle.

When writing scripts that others will run, it's essential to design your scripts defensively. Fortunately, Perl provides a built-in mechanism (called Taint Mode) to help you become more aware of potential security problems in your scripts. By Dan Ragle.

This week we're going to examine the use of user-defined subroutines in Perl; blocks of code that can accept, operate on, and/or return variables and values that can be reused throughout your Perl script without needing to copy and paste it each time it's required. By Dan Ragle.

In this short tutorial, we examine the main core functions that can be used to create formatted reports with the Perl language: format, for the insertion of data elements into formatted report lines; and write, which outputs the formatted results to a file or STDOUT for examination. By Dan Ragle.

As a Web developer, you might need to synchronize servers accurately, either locally, or at a distance. At first glance, it seems simple, but not when you consider computer clock times, different time zones, etc. Enter the Network Time Protocol, or NTP. Among other things, NTP allows machines to synchronize their clocks. By Dan Ragle.

This article examines the basic building blocks and fundamental concepts that you need to know to begin writing and using your own modules. Towards the end, We'll touch &#8212; very briefly &#8212; on extended topics such as autoloading and object classes. By Dan Ragle.

Give your site a voice. Weblog 1.71 adds VoiceXML and Avantgo support, and squashes all known bugs. Thanks for your feedback. This update supersedes previous versions, details on each channel to follow.

Weblog is a Web-based tool that allows you to manage multiple RSS channels. A bulletproof update of Channel Manager, Weblog now features wireless support with WML and PALM feeds, plus a configurable installation script that automates the entire installation process, including Perl module installation.

What do you get when you put together Perl, AIM, Festival, and the Eliza chatterbot? An instant messenger on steroids! My co-workers at Whirlwind Interactive recently turned me on to Gaim, an AIM clone for Linux. I was excited to discover that there is good support for Perl in the client and the AIM protocol, so I hacked up three very cool apps. Let me know what you think.

I've been wanting to do a report on my experience at YAPC 2000 for a while, so here it is. In short, it was a blast. I've also included all the pictures I took at the conference, so you can look inside what it's all about. This was YAPC's second year, but it was still as hot as the first.

After a long Alaskan hiatus, Randal has submitted the Perl Daemon Contest results. There were 15 entries. The top 3 winners will each receive a copy of Mastering Algorithms with Perl thanks to O'Reilly. In addition the first place winner will receive $300. The second place winner will receive $200. And the winners are, drum roll please, ... here!

The RSS interest group has released the proposed RSS 1.0 spec, an extensible improvement over previous versions of RSS. Like RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0 can easily be extended (add your own fields), but unlike version 0.91, you can share these extensions with others by using XML namespace modules via RDF. RSS 1.0 is backwardly compatible with version 0.90, and via the rss091 namespace module with 0.91. 081500

Simplified DocBK XML is a simplified form of the DocBook SGML format used extensively for technical documentation and articles. Using it also makes it easy to convert an article to multiple formats like HTML, RTF and Postscript. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to write articles in Simplified DocBk XML and convert them into HTML for the Web.

Moniker is a simple command-line Perl script that is used to monitor services like HTTP, POP, NNTP, SMTP, and IMAP on local or remote servers anywhere on the Internet. It is intended to be simple to install and use, but is not intended to be a full-featured replacement for more advanced monitoring tools. Version 0.2 adds the ability to use a CSV file to specify the servers, services to monitor as well as the email address to send a notification to.

Brian McNett has contributed a version of rss2html.pl that works as a BBEdit include file. According to Brian, "The format is somewhat similar to Server Side Includes in appearance, but the functionality it somewhat different, due to the way BBEdit uses AppleEvents to send data to MacPerl." Now Mac users can convert RSS to HTML on the fly! The quest for RSS solutions continues.

RSS Maker has been renamed to the RSS Channel Editor. It includes most of the RSS 0.91 channel elements. It also includes the ability to save the RSS to the Web server's file system instead of prompting one to download it via a Web browser. The tool is available is source form as well as on the Web.

Our newest Web-based tool makes it easy to create and maintain Rich Site Summary (RSS) files. RSS is an XML format that many content providers are using to create content channels and distribute their news. Best of all, this tool is open source.

Been wanting to track down where your users are wandering off to? Well, we can't attach homing beacons to their Web browsers, but we can track when a user leaves our Web site via an external link. In this edition of Mother of Perl, we'll learn how to log this subversive behavior with a simple Perl script without the user knowing it.

In this tutorial, we will explore how to use Perl to monitor services like HTTP, POP, NNTP, SMTP, and IMAP on local or remote servers anywhere on the Internet. Since this script is a command-line utility, you can automatically monitor services via a cron job (on *nix) or with at (on NT).

It seems PerlHoo has another competitor. This time, a PHP version that stores data in MySQL rather than CSV files. But CDI, the author of phpHoo, went even further and made it searchable! Of course, this advancement will not go unchallenged.

In part one of the PerlHoo series, we will build a simple yet fully functional implementation of a Web directory in less than 100 lines of code using our operating system, comma delimited data files, a dash of ingenuity, and lots of duct tape.

XML is the standard that promises to free us from the shortcomings of HTML by allowing authors to create documents using their own descriptive markup. Despite the clear benefits of XML, it is still unclear how authors should mix XML and HTML. In this article we'll show you how to turn your HTML files into mini databases by embedding XML tags in your Web pages to describe the enclosed content.